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Park Road Leisure Centre is one of four local leisure centres in Haringey. It is well used and valued by a large number of residents in Crouch End, which is why in 2014 we made improving it one of our five key election pledges. Two years later, over £8million has been invested in the centre. Users can now benefit from:

a modern fitness suite with state of the art equipment

4 new studios, including a dedicated indoor cycle studio

3 pools

a brand new soft play area

a refurbished lido

a new cafe – Bickels Yard Food & Drink Company

and improved facilities and access for disabled users

Over-65s can use the gym facilities for free on weekdays between 9am-5pm.

However, despite the investment, many residents have told us that improvements still need to be made to the Centre, particularly in three key areas:

Accessing the swimming pool and lido: due to the high number of lesson bookings, some users find it difficult to access the pools easily. The lido has also been closed on a number of occasions this summer, prompting concern about lifeguard provision at the centre. Some users have enquired about whether a ‘swimming only’ membership can be reinstated.

Poor communication: users often struggle to get a response when they call the reception desk; the website’s booking system is ineffective; and the standard of professionalism from reception staff needs to improve, as they can sometimes appear as dismissive of users’ concerns.

Last week we met with council officers and managers from Fusion -a registered charity that works in partnership with Haringey Council to run the borough’s leisure centres. We shared your feedback, both on areas of strength and areas that require urgent improvement. Officers and managers have now provided responses on each of the three key areas of concern, outlining what currently happens and what will change:

1) Cleanliness and Hygiene

Cleanliness and hygiene levels are a key priority for the Park Road management team and more will be done to improve standards. Pool vacuuming has been introduced twice a week to deliver a higher standard of cleanliness, along with daily cleaning and maintenance regimes with regular backwashing.

The centre has 2 lifeguard teams – one for the inside pools one and for outside. Lifeguards for the outside pools rotate every 20/ 30 minutes. Once they have done a full rotation, they then commence site checks, checking the toilets and cubicles. This gets done every half an hour. When the lido closes at 1pm for an hour, centre staff will use that time to litter pick and scrub down the cubicles and showers.

The inside team rotate every 15 minutes and they will now walk through the inside changing rooms litter picking and cleaning where necessary. This will enable staff to check every 30 minutes the wet changing village and female and male changing areas. However if there are any issues, users are encouraged to raise this with the manager on duty in the first instance.

2) Accessing the swimming pool and lido

The Swimming Schools and Haringey Aquatics are protected bookings as they are fundamental to supporting the Council’s drive to increase participation and reach children whose families would not be able to afford private lessons. In terms of the current availability of the pools:

Diving Pool:

General diving is available every day apart from Tuesday’s and Thursday’s and aqua is held 5 times a week.

Main Pool:

Causal swimming is available every day between 3pm-6pm. However, to compensate on week days the training pool is open in the day until just after 3pm to allow children to swim (apart from Fridays)

Casual Swimming is available Weekends between 10am – 5.00p.m.

School holidays – school swimming lessons are replaced with casual swimming throughout the day, with the addition of sea scooters and water walker sessions in the diving pools

However, council officers and Fusion recognise there is a shortage of water space in the borough and this adds to the pressure on Park Road Leisure Centre. It was therefore agreed that a separate meeting with local councillors would be held in September to have further discussion on pool timetabling and water space availability.

The Lido

Managers and council officers are aware of the issue of the lido paint at Park Road, which results in the pool water becoming cloudy during periods of high use. It is a defect from the refurbishment that Fusion are managing at an operational level. This issue is likely to be fully resolved once they are able to drain the lido and re-paint it at the end of the summer season. In the meantime, Fusion are managing the visibility of the Lido water on a regular basis and the duty management team and lifeguards are trained to close the pool if they are unable to see peoples feet or the bottom of the pool.

Swimming-Only Memberships

Fusion are constantly reviewing our membership offering but by nature of the facility, it would be operationally challenging to facilitate a swim only membership due to accessibility of other facilities once in the centre.

Lifeguard provision

When we review our requirements for our lifeguard provision for the lido this is risk assessed in accordance to HSG 179 guidance for swimming pool safety. With this in mind we are confident that we meet the requirements set out and have the correct volume of lifeguards to effectively manage the session type on the day.

3) Poor Communication

Management action

To assist with improving communication to customers, we now operate a communication board for customer that is present on reception. Managers were disappointed hear negative feedback in relation to the staff as it is their aim is to always give great customer service and are constantly training staff through our customer engagement programmes. More focus will be put in this area and the Management team are always keen to hear feedback, good or bad, so that this can be acted on.

The manager holds a “Meet the Manager” session every month. The timing of these varies to allow people that work to attend. Customers can discuss any issues that they have or give suggestions on improvements to the centre or things they would like to see change/implemented.

The Website

A new website for the leisure centre is due to go live this month. The new website will also link to Fusion’s internal booking system for increased functionality. It will automatically tell users if a class is full or if there is a space to book, and is more simple and easy to use. It will also be easier to search for a class and if users attend a class regularly, it will be saved on the homepage. The website will also allow the Centre to increase communication to customers with a live commentary on upcoming activities and any facilities that maybe affected on the day.

Phoning reception

Fusion recognises that their telephone system needs significant improvement. Therefore they are currently reviewing the system to ensure that customers receive the correct information. This includes improving the automated system. Fusion are also revising the back office phone system to ensure all calls are answered, especially during peak times when reception may not be able to cope with the volume of calls coming through.

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We will continue to work with council officers and Fusion managers to improve users’ experience at the centre. It’s important that Fusion and the Council build on the excellent facilities that exist following significant investment over the last two years. We will also work with officers to publish the Council’s targets for Fusion, so that there is greater transparency on the performance of the partnership.

If you have any further feedback, either positive or negative, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us (you can get our contact details by clicking on our names below).

When we were elected in Crouch End it was as the first Labour councillors in the ward since 2002. And in the two years since our election we’ve seen: Hornsey Town Hall open again with progress made towards finding a … Continue reading →

It’s been a busy few months since we were elected. Here is an overview of what has been going on. Hornsey Town Hall reopens One of our main pledges in the election campaign was to get more happening in the process … Continue reading →

As the dust settles after the election and the garden stakes get taken down, we are grateful, humbled and honoured by the opportunity we have to serve Crouch End as your Councillors – the first Labour Councillors in our ward since 2002. We know that you have given us the chance to prove that the Labour Party can serve the whole of the borough, both east and west, and we take that responsibility very seriously.

Naturally we are disappointed that Lourdes Keever was not elected in Crouch End. Lourdes was an absolute pleasure to campaign with, and as a tireless campaigner for women’s rights and social justice she will undoubtedly continue to work hard to build a stronger borough.

In addition to representing Crouch End, we have both been given positions of responsibility on Haringey Council. Jason has been made Cabinet Member for Resources and Culture, responsible for shaping the budget during an incredibly difficult time for local government. He will also look after customer service transformation, cultural projects and our libraries. Natan has been made a Cabinet Advisor for Carbon Reduction, leading thinking on how Haringey can achieve its ambition of a 40% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020.

Our pledges

Too often, local politicians are only seen when an election is on the horizon. We intend to be different. Over the next four years, we will be visible and active members of the community, listening to your ideas and concerns in order to ensure that Crouch End and Haringey continue to move forward.

During the election campaign, we pledged to:

1. Drive faster progress on the development of Hornsey Town Hall, ensuring that you consulted on how it can best serve our community

2. Work with the Council and Fusion to deliver improvements to Park Road Leisure Centre and do everything we can to keep the diving board in Crouch End

3. Actively support fantastic local community groups and events such as Crouch End Open Studios and the Crouch End Festival

4. Deliver improvements to roads and pavements across the ward to ensure that pedestrians and cyclists can travel safely

5. Work with Homes for Haringey to ensure that repairs happen faster

Although it is only three weeks after the election, we are busy getting to work to deliver these pledges. So far, we have met with Mountview Theatre Academy to discuss their plans on the development of Horney Town Hall. We have also met with Fusion and the Save the Diving Pool campaign in order to see what can be done to keep the diving facilities in Crouch End. The meeting was very constructive and Fusion have publicly committed to doing everything they can to find a long-term technical solution, as well as retaining the diving pool at Park Road for the remainder of the year.

We have more work to do, including addressing persistent fly-tipping in Haringey Park, ensuring drains get unblocked on Stanhope Road and preparing for how to best facilitate a positive way forward for the new Picturehouse cinema on Tottenham Lane.

Visible, active and available

We will be regularly going on street walks to identify and address local issues. We will also be holding stalls on Crouch End Broadway (including from 2-3pm on Saturday 21st June). In addition to this, our surgeries are now confirmed and these will take place on the following days/times:

Jason Arthur: The 2nd Saturday of every month at Hornsey Library

Natan Doron: The 4th Saturday of every month at Hornsey Library

If any observant Jewish constituents wish to meet us, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us to organise a Sunday or an evening meeting. To make any appointments to see us at our surgeries, please contact us at the following details:

We will regularly update this blog so that residents have a clear idea of how we are standing up for them on Haringey Council – ensuring that Crouch End continues to be the best place to live in North London.

Thank you once again Crouch End. We look forward to working with everyone over the next four years.